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US sanctions the brother of GAESA's former chief and the daughter of its current president
The Treasury's OFAC on Thursday added two people, eight companies and five vessels to its blocked property list, and the State Department opened Cuba's electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology sectors to sanctions, according to 14ymedio, Infobae and Local 10.
The Treasury Department, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), on Thursday, Nov. 5, sanctioned Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, brother of the late general Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, who headed the military conglomerate GAESA when he died in 2022, and Any Rodríguez Lastres, daughter of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the group's current president.
The measures reach eight companies, six of them added to the list for the first time, and five vessels used to carry fuel: the Emilia, Gloria C, María Cristina, Esperanza and Lourdes. The firms include Panama-based Tentacool Commercial, Cyprus-based Caroil Transport Marine, the Cuban companies Internacional Marítima and Petróleos Marítimos del Caribe (Petromarca), and the state-owned Cubaelectrónica and Tecnosime, according to 14ymedio and Infobae.
The State Department also designated two China-based companies, China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC) and Beijing H&C Technologies, which it accuses of supplying military components and equipment to Cuba through the Cuban firm Duna S.A., sanctioned in August, and of selling surveillance and security equipment to the Cuban government.
Washington paired the designations with a determination that expands the activities subject to sanctions to the electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology sectors, according to Local 10. 14ymedio notes that the step does not automatically sanction every company in those sectors, but raises the risk for anyone doing business with certain economic structures of the regime.
"Cuba's ruling elite is hoarding the island's energy, shipping, and technology resources for its own enrichment, leaving the Cuban people to contend with blackouts, shortages, and a stagnant economy," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement reported by Local 10. Martí Noticias adds that the designations were issued under Executive Order 14404 and that, according to Rubio, they seek to keep "regime officials and their family members" from benefiting from opaque networks abroad.
OFAC blocks the designated parties' assets under U.S. jurisdiction and bars U.S. citizens and companies from dealing with them, according to Infobae, which places the measures after Washington restricted the flow of Venezuelan oil to the island. The counts differ across outlets: Cubanet lists four Cuban state companies, one Chinese firm, one Panamanian shipping company and two tankers.
Sources: 14ymedio · Infobae · Martí Noticias · Local 10 (WPLG) · Cubanet
Data updated: 2026-11-06T04:15:00.000Z